KINETIC IDENTIFICATION OF A MECHANISM OF COMPLEX PLASMA CHEMICAL-REACTIONS

Systems of differential rate equations characteristic for several basi c types of plasma chemical reactions have been obtained. Every system permits one to reproduce a full kinetic picture of the reaction (kinet ic curves of the starting, intermediate, and final compounds) and iden tify its mechanism by comparing this picture with the experimental kin etic pattern. The four important cases of a gas-phase plasma polymeriz ation were considered in detail: radical propagating chain and stepwis e recombination-activation, each having two different mechanisms of th e death of plasma radicals. A comparison between the theoretical and e xperimental (mass spectrometry) kinetic patterns of six starting monom ers and their low-molecular-weight products has established the chain mechanism predominating in all cases at the initial stages of the synt hesis.